A pasta salad made with farfalle bowtie pasta and cooked chicken, tossed with ranch dressing, bacon, grape tomatoes and baby spinach.

BLT Bowtie Chicken Pasta Salad

Good gracious the heat!

As I publish this here in July we've been under an extreme heat warning, not just the average heat warning, for days. I'm intensely thankful for air conditioning these days, and frankly the ability to pay for it cuz y'all... it ain't cheap for sure!

How's that heat going for the meal planning here lately?

A quick skillet version of barbecue chicken made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and shown here with my Green Bean Supreme Casserole and Fiesta Confetti Corn.

Skillet Barbecue Chicken

The inspiration for this began with the BBQ Glazed Chicken in Pioneer Woman's most recent cookbook Dinner's Ready (#ad).

As soon as I saw the picture, my mouth watered so I thought that I would try it with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts I had and my own rub.

I loved the way this turned out y'all!

Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, simply seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder, oven braised in a light sauce of chicken broth and wine, with vegetables.

Oven Braised Bone-in Chicken Breasts with Vegetables

This dish was inspired by a recipe in Frank Stitt's Southern Table, a cookbook he describes as Provençal-influenced southern food. In other words, fancier than me!

For this dish, essentially a coq au vin, he prepared a sauce made with the accumulated juices and both a white and Madeira wine that was reduced as a sauce. He served the chicken next to an Autumn Root Vegetable Puree made with boiled and pureed turnips, carrots, parsnip, sweet potato and rutabaga and a glazed ragout of Autumn vegetables, made with roasted beets and pan-sauteed cipollini and pearl onions and carrots, with apple wedges, quartered potatoes, turnips and slices of parsnip, served alongside.

Whew!

Chefs do tend to get a little fancy, but for little old home cook me, well, I needed something a bit more simplified.

The Chicken Box Restaurant Chicken Salad

A simple chicken salad made with shredded chicken, boiled egg and celery with a mix of flavorful seasonings.

The Chicken Box Chicken Salad

If you've hung around here any length of time, you already know I love chicken salad! It's a great meal any time of the year, but especially when the summer heat is on.

The one I make the most is what I call a classic deli-style chicken salad. It's a very basic chicken salad, absent all of the other goodies like grapes or cranberries or even avocado, or bacon and nuts and all the little extras we like to throw into our chicken salads these days.

Still, I'm not staunchly tied to one single chicken salad to be the one and only chicken salad, so I find myself constantly experimenting and trying new recipes, and, in fact, I've got quite a few different versions published already here at the website... and more to come!

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin, dipped in an egg and hot sauce blend, dredged in a seasoned buttery Ritz cracker mix, pan-fried or baked, and topped with a buttery pan gravy before serving.

Ritzy Butter Cream Chicken

Here's one of those tasty things to do with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Y'all know I'm not the biggest fan of those, but after a dip in some egg and hot sauce, a pass through a nicely seasoned blend of buttery crackers, and a quick pan fry or oven bake, these are some kinda good!

I love using regular saltines as a coating for chicken, instead of the typical flour or bread crumbs, but there's a world of texture difference between saltine crackers and those soft, delicious, buttery round crackers, most of us know as "Ritz" brand. Where saltines are crisp and jagged, Ritz crackers are tender - kind of like the difference in the texture of soft bread crumbs and dried.

A super flavorful way to prepare fresh or frozen chicken breasts to use in chicken salads, soups, skillet meals, casseroles and other recipes.

Oven Poached Ready Chicken

Usually when folks need already cooked chicken for a recipe, they poach a couple of chicken breasts in a saucepan on the top of the stove. It's a quick and easy process when there isn't some already put up, or leftover from another meal.

Sometimes we pick up an over-sized deli rotisserie chicken, just for the purpose of a quick meal on a busy day, with some intentional leftovers. Very often, however, those are heavily seasoned and super-salty, making them less adaptable for some recipes.

Nubby Fried Chicken Planks

Nubby Fried Chicken Planks - a grown up version of chicken tenders, served here with a homemade chicken gravy, quick fix green beans and a garden salad.

Fried Chicken Planks

What are chicken planks you ask? Well, they are simply chicken tenders for adults!

Seriously though, they are chicken tenders that are pounded thinner, which makes them more appropriate for a fancier fried chicken platform, such as those amazing restaurant copycat recipes, and they cook much faster than traditional chicken breasts, which are typically, well... in my humble opinion, otherwise tasteless! Because planks cook faster, they stay tender and delicious, and no brining is necessary. Yay!

Chicken Lazone, made using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, either cut into chunks, tenders or left whole, highly seasoned and pan seared, then served with a creamy butter sauce over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes.

Chicken Lazone

This Chicken Lazone recipe seems to have blasted across the internet recently, but what you probably didn't know was that it was developed back in the mid to late-90s by Chef Lazone Randolph of Brennans Restaurant in New Orleans.

He wrote it for the cookbook, Sugar Bust for Life with the Brennans, a companion guide for the then very popular Sugar Buster's Diet {affil link}, a project with which Ellen Brennan was involved as a consultant, editor and publisher. I definitely remember that diet, written by a group of Louisiana doctors, and it seemed everybody I knew from New Orleans was doing it for awhile, which probably prompted the cookbook.

It was, of course, minus the pasta, since wheat flour pasta was unheard of back then, though somebody along the way added it as a serving suggestion for the rest of us. It is also delicious on it's own or served over mashed potatoes or white, brown or yellow rice though. Try my homemade yellow rice from page 117 of my cookbook, Deep South Dish Homestyle Southern Recipes {affil link}. It is divine with Chicken Lazone.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, marinated in lime juice and Italian seasoning, browned then brushed with honey and cooked with sweet bell peppers. Serve with pan juices over rice.

Honey Sweet Pepper Chicken Breasts

I guess you could say that this is a combination of several recipes. It started as one common and popular chicken recipe using Italian dressing as the flavor base that we've all made. Then my mind went to a dish we make down here using Italian dressing called Mardi Gras Chicken, thanks to the blend of green, red and yellow sweet bell peppers typically used. Then, that Cracker Barrel copycat "ungrilled, grilled chicken tenderloin" recipe using Italian dressing, lime and honey, a recipe that's been making the internet rounds for years, jumped in my head. This was the result of all that thinking. I just love the creative process of recipe development!

Brown Sugar Chicken with Bacon - my take on the popular three ingredient chicken, made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, dredged in a seasoned brown sugar and wrapped in bacon.

Brown Sugar Chicken with Bacon

I know that by now you've probably seen the three ingredient chicken recipe floating around Pinterest and Facebook. It uses chicken, a packet of dry Italian dressing and seasoning mix with brown sugar. It's quite a tasty recipe as it stands, very easy and everybody seems to really enjoy it.

Macaroni and cheese, made with chicken, shell noodles and some common elements from my Buffalo Chicken Dip with Bacon.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese in just about any form you can make it.

My favorite, hands down, and one of the most popular recipes on my site from day one, is the 'overly decadent but so totally delicious it's worth making,' special occasion mac and cheese.

A creamy version of chicken tortilla soup, made with cooked chicken and fajita seasonings. Served with a garnish of crispy tortilla strips, shredded cheese, sour cream and served here with a side of sour cream cornbread.

Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Here's the soup I promised to you on the recent post for the Sour Cream Cornbread. Oh. My. Goodness. Y'all really must try this - I insist!

Homemade King Ranch Casserole

A Tex-Mex favorite, this homemade from scratch version of King Ranch Casserole is made using a highly seasoned shredded chicken, and a butter roux-based cream sauce, seasoned with a medley of veggies and peppers, and layered in with cheese and corn tortillas. Yum y'all!

King Ranch Casserole

King Ranch Casserole is more Tex Mex than it is Deep South, but since I have roots in that region too, I'll claim it over here as a Mississippi favorite as well!

It's a simple layered casserole, typically made using seasoned, shredded chicken, fresh veggies, and layered with a sauce, in between corn tortillas and shredded cheese. Really, what is not to love about that?!

Thinly sliced or pounded pieces of boneless chicken breast are grilled, then topped with barbecue sauce, bacon and shredded cheeses, and finished with a garnish of fresh chopped tomatoes and sliced green onion.

Grilled Cheesy Barbecue Chicken

This is a such a quick, easy and super tasty meal that's really perfect for any weeknight. Known across the net as a copycat of Chili's Monterey Chicken, it's really nothing more than a simple boneless, skinless chicken breast that is brushed with barbecue sauce, topped with bacon, a little shredded cheese and finished with a garnish of fresh chopped tomato and sliced green onion. Cheesy, smothered and covered y'all. Not a thing wrong with that!

Cajun Pastalaya - Pasta Jambalaya

The classic flavors of a chicken and sausage jambalaya but in a quick and easy skillet pasta dinner.

Cajun Pastalaya

Pastalaya is another one of those dishes that gets some folks kinda cranked up.

The purists have a fit over anybody calling a dish that is not rice based, anything remotely related to jambalaya. I've even had a gal go into a full out rant about calling this dish "Cajun."

 

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips, seasoned and dusted with flour, dipped into beaten egg, and rolled into well crushed saltine crackers - a southern favorite!

Crunchy Saltine Chicken Tenders

I guess we all have a go-to chicken strip recipe since you can really stretch out a chicken breast by cutting it into strips. Two or three large chicken breasts literally will make a huge platter of strips. When made at home with whole chicken breasts purchased on sale, they are economical and a super thumbs-up kid favorite (even for us big kids)!

Chicken Fried Chicken with Southern Peppered Milk Gravy

Similar to our beloved southern fried chicken, a boneless, skinless chicken breast is pounded thin, dredged in flour and fried. Served with a drizzle of creamy milk gravy made from some of the pan drippings, it is truly good ole comfort food.

Chicken Fried Chicken

Sounds a little silly doesn't it?  I mean fried chicken is just, well, fried chicken, how could it be a chicken fried chicken? Right?

A Facebook reader posed that very oddity when I mentioned I was making Chicken Fried Chicken for Sunday supper.  It really just refers to the preparation - a method similar to chicken fried steak - and, what sets it apart from traditional bone-in fried chicken.

Mama's Grilled and Smothered Chicken

A grilled chicken breast, finished with caramelized onion, crisp bacon and sauteed mushroom, topped with provolone cheese.

Grilled and Smothered Chicken

I lost my Mama in 1997 but she was always such a fun person and I sure do miss her. One of the things that I used to love to do with her was to go to restaurants together for lunch or dinner, and one of our favorites was Ruby Tuesday located right on the beach in Biloxi - gone now thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

We would eat far too much, laugh a lot, and it was just a wonderful time, and boy did she love those ribs! We never had enough room left for dessert and used to say we should just go out and eat dessert sometime, but sadly we never got around to doing that before she passed.

A roasted meat Cajun jambalaya with chicken and smoked sausage.

Oven Baked Cajun Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

I love this recipe for Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya - the kind that builds flavor, layer upon layer, with herbs, seasonings, and seared or roasted meats.

The primary success tool for making a proper jambalaya to me though, is that it should be cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven. All of this takes just a bit more time to pull off but it produces a nice, fluffy jambalaya, without worrying over a pot on the top of the stove.

The good ole, standby, oven baked Ranch Chicken that everybody loves, updated with the use of mayo, panko and crushed saltines.

Crispy Panko Coated Ranch Chicken

I am so glad that panko bread crumbs have become more mainstream and readily available over the past couple of years, because they add a special crispness to foods. Panko breadcrumbs are jagged edged and flaky, so that they remain crisp whether they are used in frying or baking, plus they make a great topping too.